Amazon's Android App Store Is Supposedly Launching This Month
Amazon's app store for Google Android devices is launching soon — this month — according to this tweet from mobile ad network Millennial Media. — “Launching this month! Amazon Appstore for #Android—learn more here,” …
Context & Ripple Effects
TechCrunch reported back in September 2010 that Amazon was building its own app store for Android, and today the first hard signal of a date surfaced — a promotional tweet from mobile ad network Millennial Media saying the Amazon Appstore for Android is "launching this month." Amazon itself has not confirmed the timing, so this remains a rumor sourced from a company that would plausibly be part of the launch marketing.
If accurate, the move puts Amazon's retail machinery — accounts, one-click payment, merchandising — directly onto Google's platform, arriving just as Amazon is pushing Kindle content aggressively on other devices while telling investors it isn't worried about Apple's In-App Purchasing rule changes.
First-order effects
- Android developers would immediately gain a second major storefront with curated placement and Amazon's established payment relationships, giving them an alternative to Google's Android Market for paid distribution.
- Millennial Media's role in announcing the date suggests ad-network partnerships are woven into the launch plan, positioning the store as both a sales venue and an advertising inventory source from day one.
Second-order effects
- Google's control of default app distribution on Android weakens if handset makers and carriers can preinstall Amazon's store as a competing marketplace, pressuring Google's placement and revenue terms on its own platform.
- Apple faces a storefront that bundles Amazon's media catalog with apps on iOS's chief rival — a counterpoint to Amazon's public claim that Apple's In-App Purchasing changes won't dent Kindle app economics.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Android fragments into multiple competing app storefronts with different curation and billing rules, shifting power over mobile software distribution from platform owners toward large retailers with direct consumer billing relationships.
- For Amazon, an app store is another step in extending the Kindle-era playbook — selling hardware-adjacent digital content at thin margins to drive its retail ecosystem — across every screen that isn't made by Apple.
The trend: Android's openness is letting third-party retailers like Amazon build rival app storefronts inside Google's own platform, eroding the assumption that the OS maker controls app distribution.